• Call it librarian rock or simply smarter than the rest of the class, but two new releases this week get heady in the language-arts department. Goblin Market continues the side project of the Green Pajamas' Jeff Kelly and Laura Weller with the release of Haunted, on the Camera Obscura Records label, featuring songs based on the works of American author Joyce Carol Oates.
• A handful of benefit CDs are raising funds for worthwhile causes, including aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, all looking to find hope in your hearts and a few loose bucks in your wallet. This week Saddle Creek Records releases its own Red Cross/Katrina rescue CD, entitled Lagniappe, named for the little bonus surprise that is often given by old-school shopkeepers on the Gulf Coast.
• With masked monsters soon to mash around your block in search of sugary treats, a few new Halloween CDs aim to put you in a pumpkin-carving frenzy. Packed with 25 golden oldies, Ace Record's These Ghoulish Things: Horror Hits for Halloween compilation is an import-only title worth the hunt, as only about half of the songs within have ever found their way onto CD before.
Filled with pleasing melodies and heartwarming themes, the concert opening the Quad City Symphony Orchestra’s 91st season was an understated balm for the soul. Concert pianist Alon Goldstein joined the symphony in Augustana’s Centennial Hall to deliver a performance that was simply enjoyable from beginning to end.
• Everything's covers crazy this month as a two-handed stack of CDs shows off both wild and subdued interpretations of pop and punk classics. This Tuesday Vagrant Records and Activision are teaming up with Tony Hawk for his new American Wasteland video game and the accompanying CD soundtrack, with 14 punk favorites newly recorded by today's hottest new stars.

By Georges!

For some musicians, the idea of performing in a tribute band full-time, and in full costume, no less, would be a depressing proposition. Why devote time, talent, and energy to the presentation of someone else's hits? Michael Fulop and Marty Scott, though, wouldn't have it any other way, and if you had the chance to portray George Harrison for adoring Beatles fans on a nightly basis, you might feel the same way.
• Got cash? This Tuesday the Gang of Four are sharing a little loot with the release of their new two-CD set, Return the Gift. Back in 1979, when their debut album, Entertainment, rocked the art-punk zeitgeist, the album's cover art presented a timeless image and a radically truthful message - the Indian smiles, and thinks the cowboy is his friend.
Once again the end of the summer festival season is ably declared by the Chicago Jazz Festival with its breathtaking backdrops of Lake Michigan, Buckingham fountain, and the Chicago skyline, this year serving as a canvas for a B-minus lineup of performers from September 1 through 4.
Forget all that Austin Powers nonsense and get truly psychedelic this coming Tuesday, as Snapper Records is releasing a rare, seminal documentary of the swinging London scene of the late 1960s. Now on DVD for the first time, Pink Floyd London 1966-1967 captures the band at its creation, with rare footage taken from Peter Whitehead's film Tonite Let's All Make Love in London.
• Back for a second collaborative album, this Tuesday Jello Biafra & the Melvins release Sieg Howdy! on Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label. With intriguing song titles such as "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)" and "The Lighter Side of Global Terrorism," the new CD promises new rants from the Dead Kennedys founder and an updated recording of the band's classic "Kalifornia Uber Alles" for the Schwarzenegger populous.

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